Event Description

This year we’re focused on exploring some of the margins of Pietism studies and how Pietism has been reinvented in different historical and contemporary contexts. We have a great lineup of speakers for this year:

Keynote address will feature the story of an African-American pastor who has been shaped by the legacy of Scandinavian Pietism. Efrem Smith, president and CEO of World Impact, will reflect on the “missional Pietism” that he learned as a pastor and conference superintendent in the Evangelical Covenant Church, a denomination founded by Swedish immigrants that it is now increasingly multi-ethnic. There will be a time of Q&A with Efrem following lunch.

Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, of North Park Theological Seminary, will be revisiting the chapters in her 2010 book on Pietist ethics on Johanna Eleonora Petersen and August Hermann Francke and explain how a Pietist ethos informs her understanding of the relationship between gender and Christianity and her commitment to social reform (in particular, her educational work in prisons).

Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom and Mark Safstrom will also be presenting a rough cut of their in-progress documentary film on the history of Pietism: God’s Glory, Neighbor’s Good.